Hey Amir,
Thanks for the email! It's nice to know we have someone so dedicated to
internationalisation involved in the app's development. :-)
On 18 November 2014 04:03, Amir E. Aharoni <amir.aharoni(a)mail.huji.ac.il>
wrote:
Is there any plan to make the app less monolingual? See
https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=34100
Considering we support switching to every language Wikipedia out there, I
think it is a bit hyperbolic to imply the app is overly monolingual. :-)
Back when the feedback mailing list was active this was one of the most
requrested features, and I personally strongly support
it.
We absolutely could handle language support better. However, that work
needs to be balanced relative to our other priorities.
Right now, what we're working on benefits every single person that uses the
app. We're making search better so people can find what they need. We're
improving the presentation of the content in articles so that it's more
consistent and more beautiful. And we're working on giving people
suggestions of what they can read next. Given that this work improves the
app for everyone, it has to take priority right now.
At the very least, searching must work in the language
of the currently
displayed article, because seeing content in one language and searching in
another is badly confusing.
The current way we do things is confusing, but I actually think what you're
suggesting here is *more* confusing in the context of an app.
On desktop or mobile web, the way you read an article in another language
is to go to another website. The interface changes language (in most
cases), the logo at the top right is in a different language, the URL is
different, and so on. So, conceptually, it makes sense that search will
function in a different language; you're on a different website!
In the app, however, you're not actually going anywhere; conceptually,
you're not loading a different app, it's the exact same app fetching
content in a different language. I'm not convinced that choosing to read a
specific article in another language, a feature which works on a
page-by-page basis, should change an app-level setting and start searching
in a different language.
Better yet, there should be a way to define several "favorite languages" in
which the user is interested, and to show search
results from all of them.
If you've not already, please file a bug for this. It's something we can
explore further down the line. However, for the reasons laid out above, our
focus is on improving the overall reading experience for everyone.
Thanks,
Dan
--
Dan Garry
Associate Product Manager, Mobile Apps
Wikimedia Foundation